Colorado golfer was lucky to escape with his life.
In many parts of the country, the elk rut is in full swing. As a result, the animals are aggressive and dangerous to humans who happen to wander too close to them. At least one man hitting the links at a Denver-area golf course found out just how aggressive the animals can be when he was gored by one last weekend.
Fox 31 Denver News reports that Zak Bornhoft and three friends were golfing at the course and about to wrap up their round when an angry bull charged the golf cart at Evergreen Golf Course.
Not only did the animal charge the cart, but it managed to gore Zak in the right side and the animal's massive antler punctured through the man's body and sliced his left kidney in half. The story is a chilling reminder of the power of these animals.
"The elk rammed the cart, and then the elk rammed again into my husband's right side," Zak's wife Megan Bornhoft told the news station.
He was then taken to an intensive care unit. Fortunately, his condition quickly stabilized. While Zak is now expected to make a recovery in the hospital, things could have easily been much worse in this incident. Elk and humans regularly come into contact on this course. The news station showed another clip of a bull charging a different golf cart. However, it is the first time someone has been gored by an elk while golfing this course.
Denver Parks and Recreation runs the course and told reporters they have no plans to shut down holes with heavy elk activity. However, they will continue to use rangers and other employees to inform golfers of the dangers and places of highest activity. They also posted a reminder on their Facebook page about the dangers presented by getting too close to the animals.
"The doctor told me three inches either way, we wouldn't be sitting here," Megan told the station. "He said it would have been better to have been stabbed with a knife because of the dirt on the elk antlers."
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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